All The Shah's Men

"All the shah's men: an American coup and the roots of middle easte terror" is a pretty good book by Stephen Kinzer, ISBN 0-471-67878-3.

The book talks about the CIA and its involvement in the 1953 coup d'Etat in Iran against premier Mossadegh.
This is relevant because
1- it is a reckognised fact that this happen, the CIA acknoledges it.
2- it was the first CIA coup operation
3- it shows that such coup operations are ultimately doomed to cause the exact opposite effect, by stirring great and needless trouble. further proof of that is that before the coup, America was loved by iranians; because of the coup, it is hater more than any other country.
4- it reveals the history behind hatred for america in the middle east, and pointedly shows how manipulative the British were.

I really recomend it. happy reading!

A Great BBC series!

A few weeks ago the BBC showed a great program called "The Power of Nighmares". Though i do not endorse its conclusions it is certainly the type of thought-provoking stuff i love to see on mainstream broadcasts.
Basically the gist of it is, after the 50s, people everywhere in the world got disillusioned with politicians. Out of this disillusion, 2 things came out: in the west, neo-conservatism, a response to apolitical liberalism. in the middle east, radical islamism grew. these 2 movements thus originated from the same cause. the neo-conservatives were to regain authority over people by generating fear in their lives.
It goes on to say how Islamic Terorrism is a threat that the west -namely the US- imposed on itself when it funded and supported islamic movements in Afghanistan for example, but also elsewhere by supporting Tyrants in power.
In the end, the final episode of the 3-part series suggests that terrorism and Al-quaeda as we know them today are largely illusions, and it shows who might have been the real winner in this -perhaps?- masterful trickery.

check out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/3970901.stm
for the official site

Also post back a comment if you find this series on the net in any audio format.